Thursday, 16 October 2014

More from Brush Hill

Apart from lots of baby fungi, I found a few more things up at Brush Hill Nature Reserve yesterday. I managed to sit on this bramble whilst trying to photograph a fungus. Very prickly, but a beautiful colour! I can testify that the thorns would put most animals off trying to eat it, but they are also good for hooking onto plants etc as the long branches grow.

There was lots of moss around. Moss is a small, flowerless plant that usually grows in a clump or mat. The leaves support the plant, but don't conduct water or nutrients. Instead they absorb these through the leaves. They don't have seeds, instead they grow thin stalks with a capsule at the top that contains spores. You can see these in the picture below.

This squirrel spotted me and decided to stay still in the hope that I didn't notice him. It didn't work, but he posed nicely for a photo!

It was raining lightly while I was in the woods and the raindrops really made the spiders webs show up. It's amazing to think of the architectural feats performed by a little spider. Such a uniform pattern!

#100DaysOfNature Day 85

I also found this spider's skin hanging from a web. The spider must have grown out of the skin and literally walked out of this one. If you look closely you can see the hole in the skin, just underneath and behind the front two pairs of legs, where the old skin has cracked open.

I also heard a woodpecker in the trees (but couldn't see it) and another bird that sounded a lot like a car alarm. No idea what it was, but I'm sure it wasn't a car alarm (unless the car was at the top of a very tall tree!)